1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector and a press-fitting jig for the connector and, more particularly, to a press-fit connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 7A, 7B and 7C are views showing one example of the state before the terminals of a conventional press-fit connector are press-fitted in a board. FIG. 7A is a front elevation containing a section taken along a terminal row closest to this side; FIG. 7B is a side elevation; and FIG. 7C is an enlarged view of a portion of FIG. 7A. FIGS. 8A and 8B are conceptional views showing a connector jig. FIG. 8A is a perspective view showing a deep groove shape, and FIG. 8B is a perspective view showing a portion of FIG. 8A. Here, blanked arrows in FIGS. 7A to 7C indicate the directions, in which the individual parts to be press-fitted are mounted.
In the related art, the so-called “press-fit connector” is widely used as a connector, which is enabled to effect convenient connections requiring no soldering merely by press-fitting the terminals in a board. As this terminal press-fitting method, moreover, there is known the method (as likewise adopted for the so-called “pin connector”, which is prepared by soldering the individual terminals to the board, as disclosed in JP-A-6-224597 and JP-A-10-41026), in which, with a plurality of flanged terminals 512 extending from the housing 511 of a press-fit connector 510 being clamped between transversely (of FIG. 7A) arranged comb teeth of a connector jig 520, the flanged portions 512b of the individual terminals 512 are pushed with pressure faces 521 of the connector jig 520, as shown in FIGS. 7A to 7C, thereby to press-fit elastic portions 512a formed by bulging the leading end portions of the individual terminals 512 in a needle eye shape, in through holes 532 formed in the board body 531 of a printed-circuit board 530. Here, numeral 550 in FIGS. 7A and 7B designates a board jig, against which the printed-circuit board 530 is to be brought into abutment at the press-fitting time. The leading ends of the individual terminals 512 are brought into and protected by bottomed holes 552, which are formed in a jig body 551. As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, moreover, the comb teeth of the connector jig 520 are defined by deep grooves 523 and shallow grooves 524, which are formed in a jig body 522. The deep grooves 523 are further composed of inducing portions 523b for inducing the terminals 512 and guide portions 523a for guiding the induced terminals 512 onto the pressure faces 521. In the related art, moreover, the guide portions 523a are defined by parallel faces having a predetermined groove width.
FIGS. 9A, 9B and 9C are views showing the states before and after a bending treatment of a terminal. FIG. 9A is a perspective view of a portion showing the state before the bending treatment of the terminal; FIG. 9B is a perspective view of a portion showing the state after the bending treatment; and FIG. 9C is a top plan view of FIG. 9B.
Each terminal 512 is usually formed by punching a material with a press or the like into a flat plate shape having a terminal width W, as shown in FIG. 9A, and then by pushing the flat plate with a not-shown pushing tool to bend it at a right angle to a predetermined bending radius R. However, this bent portion 512c is flattened so that the terminal width W′ is known to become larger than the unbent portion (W′>W), as shown in FIG. 9B and FIG. 9C.
In the connector jig 520 of the related art, the comb teeth are usually widely spaced to match the enlarged terminal width W′. In this case, the engaging allowance between the flanged portions 512b of the terminals 512 and the pressure faces 521 are reduced to raise such a problem in the worst case that the load necessary for the press-fit cannot be borne.
If the comb teeth are not widely spaced, on the other hand, the terminals 512 and the comb teeth interfere with each other to intensify their contact forces so that the connector jig 520 is hardly set. If the connector jig 520 is to be forcibly set, moreover, the terminals 512 are subjected to an excessive force so that they are deformed to raise another problem that the yield of products is lowered.